The present invention generally relates to mobile cotton harvesters, and, more particularly, to a mobile cotton harvester including on-board apparatus for receiving, distributing and compacting the cotton continually as it is harvested, for building or forming a unitary cotton module or portion of a unitary cotton module which will be freestanding and capable of being handled and transported without breaking apart or requiring further compaction.
Currently, cotton is typically harvested from plants by mobile cotton harvesters which include a relatively large basket for receiving and holding the harvested cotton. Many known cotton harvester baskets include apparatus for distributing and compacting the cotton therein to some extent, primarily to increase the amount of cotton which can be held in the basket.
Typical of such apparatus include a frame mounted in the upper region of the basket and carrying augers or other apparatus for distributing and compacting the cotton. Reference in this regard Nickla U.S. Pat. No. 3,412,532, issued Nov. 26, 1968 to International Harvester Company; Deutsch U.S. Pat. No. 4,888,940, issued Dec. 26, 1989 to Deere and Company; and Covington et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,533,932, issued Jul. 9, 1996 to Case Corporation. For improved distribution of the cotton within the basket, it is also known to effect reversal of the rotational direction of the augers manually, or automatically using various devices including pressure sensors, optical level sensors, and timers. Reference in this regard, the above-referenced Deutsch patent; Buehler et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,584,762, issued Dec. 17, 1996 to Case Corporation; and Riesterer U.S. Pat. No. 6,176,779B1, issued Jan. 23, 2001 to Deere and Company. Additionally, it is known to pivot the frame carrying the augers or other apparatus about a fixed point in the basket to compact the cotton downwardly and toward one end of the basket, as disclosed in the Nickla, Covington et al., and Buehler et al. patents referenced above.
However, an observed shortcoming of the use of the known augers located at a fixed position near the top of the basket is that the compaction by the augers occurs only when the cotton reaches the augers at which point the basket is nearly full, which results in only a minimal degree of compaction. Pivoting the frame carrying the augers downwardly into the basket has been found to achieve more satisfactory compaction for purposes of increasing basket capacity, but a shortcoming is that the compaction is uneven, due to the arcuate motion of the frame as a result of its pivotal connection. To better compact the cotton adjacent to the pivot end of the basket, the augers are typically directed to compact the cotton toward that end. However, by using two methods of compaction of the cotton, namely, compaction by the pivoting frame at one end of the basket and compaction by the augers toward the opposite end, satisfactory uniformity of compaction for the purposes of module building has not been achieved, and thus this is considered to be a shortcoming of the known constructions.
As a result, when the basket of the known harvesters is full, the cotton is typically then transferred or dumped into a cotton module builder, which is a device separate from the harvester and operable to tamp or compact and shape several basket loads of cotton into a large cotton module. Reference in this regard Haney et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,184,425, issued Jan. 22, 1980 to Cotton Machinery Company, Inc. which discloses a representative cotton module builder utilizing a fluid operated tamper for compacting cotton movable longitudinally along the upper portion of a rectangular frame for receiving and holding the cotton, the tamper being positionable at incremental locations along the frame and vertically operable for tamping the cotton at those locations to a desired degree of compaction or density. Additionally, when the loads of cotton are dumped into the frame, the loads typically break apart and are unevenly distributed in the module builder frame. To level or even out the cotton, the tamper is typically lowered down into the cotton and pushed or dragged longitudinally therethrough to distribute the cotton more evenly. Once the cotton is more evenly distributed or leveled out, the tamper is then used to compact the cotton at incremental locations along the frame to form a rectangular cotton module using the frame as a mold, the tamping resulting in sufficient compaction of the cotton such that when removed from the frame, the module is substantially freestanding and retains a rectangular shape. This is effective, but is time and labor consuming, and thus is considered to be a less than optimal manner of producing a usable cotton module.
After being built, a cotton module is typically stored either in the field or in a suitable storage structure such as a barn or the like for as long as several months before the gin is able to receive and process it. Thus, the degree and uniformity of compaction of the cotton is desirably sufficient such that the module is able to retain at least substantially its rectangular shape without support, for the duration of storage, transport to the gin and other handling.
The above-discussed procedure, namely, harvesting the cotton, collecting and compacting it to some extent in a basket, transferring or unloading it from the basket into a module builder, then distributing the cotton within the module builder and moving the tamper along the frame and compacting the cotton to build a module, is time consuming, labor intensive, and costly.
Accordingly, what is sought is a mobile or self-propelled cotton harvester including a module building capability, which can harvest cotton and build the cotton into a cotton module xe2x80x9con the goxe2x80x9d, so as to eliminate or reduce many of the above-discussed handling steps between the harvesting of the cotton and the building of the cotton module, and eliminate the need for the traditional separate module builder, to thereby reduce the time and cost of handling the cotton.
What is disclosed is a mobile, self-propelled cotton harvester having an on the go cotton module building or packaging capability, which according to one aspect of the invention includes at least one harvesting unit for removing cotton from cotton plants as the harvester moves across a cotton field; a cotton receiver or compactor structure including a first surface which is preferably a floor having a predetermined extent and side walls and ends defining and substantially enclosing an interior space or module building chamber for receiving the cotton removed from the cotton plants; structure for conveying the removed cotton from the at least one harvesting unit into the interior space or chamber; and apparatus for distributing and compacting the cotton within the interior space, including a compacting element located in the interior space, the compacting element supporting at least one member operable for distributing cotton in contact therewith at least generally evenly relative to the first surface, and at least one driver connected to the compacting element and operable for moving the compacting element to positions spaced from the first surface where the at least one member can be operated to distribute the cotton at least generally evenly relative to the first surface, and the at least one driver being operable for forceably moving the compacting element and the at least one member along a predetermined path of movement from the positions, respectively, toward the first surface and against cotton distributed between the compacting element and the first surface for simultaneously and substantially evenly compacting the cotton against the first surface to form a cotton module or package.